I Traded My Sonos Era 300 For Denon's New Home Speaker - And See No Reason To Go Back

pros and cons

Pros

• Hi-res audio support
• Multi-room integration
• Dolby Atmos support

Cons

• More costly than competitors
• Vague EQ settings

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Sonos has possibly been nan astir recognized sanction successful nan location speaker marketplace for immoderate time, but Denon has thing to opportunity astir that. The institution precocious launched its lineup of second-generation location speakers: nan Denon Home 200, Home 400, and Home 600.

The Denon Home 400 is nan mid-tier action successful nan lineup, and it's designed to spell head-to-head pinch nan Sonos Era 300. It has a similar, larger shape factor, up-firing Dolby Atmos speakers, and a slew of smart streaming features. It's besides built connected nan company's HEOS multi-room audio platform, for integration pinch speakers from different HEOS-compatible lineups.

Also: I replaced my Sonos Era speakers pinch an improbable replacement - and didn't miss a beat

Sonos has spent years refining its smart speaker offerings, and nan Era 300 is an fantabulous illustration of wherever it's landed. Can Denon genuinely return connected nan likes of Sonos pinch competitory alternatives? I've been utilizing nan Denon Home 400 to find out.

It's really very smart

The HEOS multi-room level runs things down nan scenes, and it handles things for illustration streaming, nan app experience, and truthful connected rather well. I really recovered it supported each nan features I've travel to trust connected successful my Sonos speakers. HEOS natively supports respective euphony streaming platforms, including Tidal, Qobuz, Amazon Music, and more, while Apple Music connectivity relies connected nan speaker's AirPlay 2. 

The Home 400 useful perfectly good connected its own, but you tin besides brace 2 for stereo playback aliases usage them arsenic wireless situation speakers alongside nan Denon Home Sound Bar 550. That action is particularly adjuvant if you want to build retired a due surviving room setup without moving speaker ligament everyplace -- and it mirrors Sonos' implementation pinch its soundbars. Denon besides supports HEOS-compatible subwoofers for other low-end muscle.

Christian de Looper/ZDNET

For beingness connections, there's Wi-Fi, a USB-C port, a 3.5mm aux input, and a built-in microphone. While nan HEOS ecosystem mightiness not beryllium arsenic well-built arsenic Sonos's, successful day-to-day use, HEOS useful beautiful well. Setup is easy, multi-room grouping is dependable, and you've sewage sum crossed nan awesome streaming services.

Music sounds excellent

Inside nan Home 400, you'll find six drivers total, including 2 tweeters, 2 114mm (4.5-inch) woofers, and 2 up-firing drivers dedicated to tallness information. Every azygous 1 of those drivers gets its ain dedicated Class D amplifier, giving nan speaker precise power complete each constituent of nan sound. 

This acoustic constitution is simply a awesome upgrade complete nan previous-generation Home 250, which had less drivers and couldn't do thing adjacent to existent Atmos playback. The Home 400 is really nan first HEOS-enabled speaker to support existent Dolby Atmos euphony playback, utilizing beingness upfiring drivers alternatively than virtualized tallness effects.

Also: Tidal vs. Qobuz: I tried some hi-res streaming services, and they couldn't beryllium much different

You tin perceive nan quality successful compatible content, too. Whether you really want to usage Atmos while listening to euphony is different story. I sometimes find it enjoyable, but I usually for illustration to instrumentality to stereo playback. However, Atmos support does really thief erstwhile you usage these speakers arsenic surrounds successful a location theatre setup. The immersion of 3D audio is noticeable from nan situation speakers and nan beforehand channels, which tin activity together to heighten nan tallness effect.

You tin power nan speaker's wave range, but it's not very precise. To beryllium clear, Sonos doesn't springiness you very precise power either, truthful if you're comparing nan two, this isn't needfully a large drawback for this speaker specifically. You will get basal bass, treble, and tallness controls, truthful you tin make heavy-handed adjustments, but nan controls are a small difficult to find. 

Jada Jones/ZDNET

I spent a while digging done settings earlier realizing I had to really beryllium playing audio done nan speaker to power nan adjustments. Once you get an knowing of nan app and really it works, you'll find it mostly easy to navigate, but it's still not very intuitive.

If you're an audio nerd, you'll admit nan amended support for hi-res audio connected nan Denon Home 400. The Home 400 tin play afloat 24-bit/192kHz audio natively, and if you play audio done nan USB port, you tin play your FLAC files. That's up of nan Sonos Era 300, which tin judge 24-bit/192kHz audio arsenic an input but downscales it during playback.

ZDNET's buying advice

The Denon Home 400 is simply a superior location speaker that somewhat blurs nan statement betwixt consumer-grade and audiophile speakers successful nan sub-$500 value range. True audiophiles pinch heavy pockets won't see nan Home 400 an audiophile-grade speaker, but casual listeners will admit its sound.

Also: Sonos Play vs. Sonos Move 2: Why I'd spell pinch nan $200 cheaper Bluetooth speaker

If you're looking for immersive and full-sounding audio without paying a precocious price, nan Denon Home 400 is perfectly worthy considering. That said, whether it thumps alternatives depends connected your region. In immoderate regions, for illustration Europe, it costs nan aforesaid arsenic nan Sonos Era 300, but successful nan US, it costs $150 more. Most group looking for a smart speaker successful this people will want to prevention nan rate and spell for nan Era 300, particularly if they don't attraction astir amended high-res playback.